The Garden Room Christmas Tree

Let's talk about the tree in the garden room. 

This is the Green Alpine Slim Christmas Tree from Hobby Lobby.

It's always on sale. Do not buy it if it's not on sale.

It's a pretty good tree. This is the second one that we've had like this. I bought it in 2015. 

The lights lasted exactly three seasons.

It's the only used tree we still store in the attic. Attics are the kiss of death to Christmas lights in Texas.

This year there were some 112 degree days. Imagine the temp in the attic on that hot of a day. Thankfully, I was in England where they were having a heat wave but it wasn't 112.
This was supposed to be the easy tree to put up but I plugged it in and it didn't work.

Since it didn't work, I could give it a makeover. 

I sat on the floor and clipped out all the lights.

Make sure it isn't plugged in. 

(This is just a small disclaimer kind of like the one on the lemon dishwashing liquid bottle.)

[This is a side note: I saw something on pasta saying that the product was raw and please cook before eating. Uncooked pasta should not require a disclaimer. What have we become?]

I've become a big fan of flocked trees and this tree looked so green compared to my flocked trees.

It was going to get some flocking. 

I took it outside and spray painted it with flat white spray paint.

Once it was dry, it got a coat of good old fashioned snow spray.

I let that dry and then pulled it into the house.

It's not a huge amount of flocking but it looks so much better.

I strung it up with big chunky warm white LED lights and battery operated candle lights.

The tree has black and white buffalo checked ribbon with a burlap weave.

The ribbon is recycled from our black and white Christmas. It continues to be a Hobby Lobby staple. It's not on the Christmas ribbon aisle but in the floral section. 

At Christmas Hobby Lobby has ribbon in at least three different places. 

The ornaments are a mix of old and new favorites. All of them have a bent toward an old fashion German tree. 

Some of the ornaments are from our first years of marriage when we had very few ornaments at all. 

I love birds on a tree. 

Go to this post to read about traditional German mushrooms and why they are on a Christmas tree. 

I have a few antique mushrooms from my grandparents.  The rest I've collected over the years. 

IKEA had mushroom ornaments this year. Tuesday Morning usually has some early in the fall. 

I love the pop of red. 

The window is the photo above came from the Raz Imports warehouse sale this past summer. 

The older LEDs pulse so it's nearly impossible to get a good picture of the tree when it's lit. 

 I have four antique German Santas. Two in the traditional red from Bill's side of the family. Two in more of a brown color from my side of the family. They were probably red at one time.
The brown ones are hibernating this Christmas. 

The beads came from the thrift store. What a fabulous old, old glass garland.

I put lights on the barn in the rain the other night in rather slippery conditions. 

Ouch! 

They sure look cute though. 

The snow will need to be redone next year but the tree did not shed snow when it was being decorated. As long as it is left alone it will be fine until next year.

The sun came out today! Yahoo. We had a great time of worship, a yummy lunch and a wonderful walk in the park. It's been a blessed Sunday. 

I hope yours was blessed too. 

Katie 

Christmas in the Sunroom

I'm so relieved to have at least one room done for Christmas.

I am so far behind.

Christmas 2012 was the inspiration for the sunroom. I pulled my cardinal ornaments from the give away pile and used them on a new flocked tree from Walmart.

We've had Walmart trees before. They tend to get crumpled looking after a few years but they are a pretty good tree for the money. This one was $99.00. It is pre lit with LED warm white mini bulbs. It's slim and 6.5 ft. tall.  It's perfect for the lower ceiling of the sunroom. 

Once I started decorating I remembered a few other ornaments that would work. 

The tree is sprinkled with red berries and gingham accents. 

I tucked a few bird houses in the branches. 

Cardinals have that perfect pop of red.

This little fellow is new. He was a find at Tuesday Morning.

The cardinals aren't just on the tree. 

 

 Bill made the dish dresser for us in the late 80s. I gave it a coat of white paint almost two years ago. It was slated for 

give away because the old finish was a little dated. 

I'm so glad I painted it.

 It's fun to decorate for the holidays and seasons.

The trunks held my doll clothes when I was a little girl.

The bird cage was a birthday gift from a dear friend. 

 

Jonnie gave me the bird book a few years ago for Christmas. It's vintage. He found it at a second hand bookstore. I love the pictures.

The other corner got a few pictures and some candy canes.

The settee got a plaid pillow. I made it last year from a plaid L.L. Bean skirt.

Even the vintage crate is part of the decor this year. 

We are having one of our Dallas area apocalyptic ice events today. I'll have more pictures of "Ice capades 2013" in another post. Until then, I'm going to hunker down and finish this decorating. 

Thanks for coming by. 

Katie   
Linking with,
French Country Cottage   
Common Ground   
A Stroll Thru Life   
Savvy Southern Style